It cannot be said that Malta is in the front line of Western economic development but, by world standards, it is someway ahead of the Third World.

Malta’s industrialisation drive took off after World War II and further economic development was spurred by the attainment of independence in l964. Being masters in our own home made a difference.

Malta’s survival depends on its ability to earn its keep in a world of tough, intensifying competition. Its economic development has reached a stage, and the quality of life attained by its industriousness is such that it cannot sustain it on its internal market alone. It has to be outward looking and export-oriented to tap more and more sources of foreign earnings.

In the global market, the world is our oyster. We have to reach out for it. There are prizes to be won if we do so successfully. There will be a price to pay if we fail.

Stringent imperatives

This imposes stringent imperatives that could only be ignored at our peril.

The foremost imperative is that Maltese businessmen must realise that they have no future if they compete against one another for the local market in the hope that they can survive by getting fat at the expense of their Maltese competitors.

If most Maltese businessmen stick to the tradition of grabbing a bigger slice of the national cake, or of eating collectively out of the same plate, the nation’s wealth will not increase. It would merely mean that the winners survive at the expense of the weak, and that the resources, which ultimately keep the economy going, remain constant.

The answer is to enhance Malta’s national wealth by seeking new markets and new sources of foreign earnings. This could be expedited if more foreign investment is attracted to these islands to increase our exports to new markets. Productivity could be increased with new technology. The more enterprising could bid for construction contracts abroad and so on.

A second imperative is to enhance Malta’s competitiveness by reducing production and other costs by all available means. Malta’s competitors come from all directions with the sole intent of supplanting us from every market niche and of usurping the market advantage we gained in the past at great cost.

This means we must do away with restrictive practices, government-induced costs and all other inefficiencies, which out price our exports and services, and therefore, could dry up our earnings.

Formidable challenge

In the prevailing scenario, Malta could keep its place in the sun only if it manages to establish and to widen its bridgeheads in world markets that offer promise. It has to do this in the teeth of competition. In order to compete, it must cut down costs to the bare bones, and hope to realise profitable returns that would pay for reinvestment, and to enhance the quality of life of our people.

The challenge is formidable and calls for maximum concentration by all concerned. The delusion that Malta “passed the examination” in Brussels last month does not make the challenge any less formidable.

Malta managed to sanitise its finances at great sacrifice, i.e. through a sustained austerity programme that drained its economic lifeblood, and holds enterprise to ransom through unprecedented taxation. Its most urgent need is to lighten the tax burden, to incentivise enterprise.

Cutting down on the cost of government is part of the answer.

One would have thought that these considerations would induce top-flight politicians, on either side of the political divide, to focus on this single issue and not to relax, at least until we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

So they should. But in the baroque politics of Malta, things take a different turn. Many politicians prefer to seek the applause of the adulatory faithful and delight in mud-slinging exercises designed to belittle or discredit their rivals.

Unsustainable situation

Every day, charges and counter-charges are traded in Parliament and in the media, to show that the other side is the devil incarnate.

Politicians are egged on by their respective party machines. All of them continue to show an amazing exclusiveness on their horizons. New “disclosures” are greeted at the respective party headquarters with the same enthusiasm that erupted when General Blucher arrived on the battlefield of Waterloo!

The blunt fact is that sound bite, media-addicted politicians are doing all they can to distract the attention of public opinion. The situation is not sustainable. Unless there is a change in attitude, sooner or later something has to give.

Public opinion is gradually showing signs of awareness that the writing is on the wall. It is becoming increasingly aware of the gathering storm and is already preparing to take cover. This is why it has reduced the level of its spending.

It is, to say the least, incongruous that, instead of hammering our immediate, results-oriented policies, some politicians are bent on distracting one and all by fomenting divisions instead of building bridges to encourage co-operation.

Everyone is in the same boat, and the private sector has the highest stakes. It should take the initiative and cut across the miasma of prevailing impotence. The immediate problem is how to reignite the economic engine and to find ways and means how to generate wealth primarily by tapping new sources of earnings.

However formidable, the challenge is not insuperable, given the right leadership.

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